It Took You to Build a (South Indian) Village

Posted on | November 18, 2011 | No Comments

Beth here, one of the co-founders of Passports with Purpose.

While we’re in the process of gearing up for this year’s fundraiser, I thought you might like to hear about what you made happen through last year’s Passports with Purpose.

You’ll recall that our 2010 fundraiser brought in nearly $65,000 through Friends of LAFTI. Those funds are helping build 25 homes in a small village, Karunganni, in South India.

Karunganni is located in the state of Tamil Nadu. A small village near the coast, it’s far enough inland to have dodged the tsunami in 2004, but is prone to flooding and, like much of India, struggles with extreme poverty.

In January, I visited Karunganni just as ground was being broken on those homes. What I found there was a very grateful community where most people live in poorly built mud huts that crumble and need to be patched and rebuilt every few years.

With the funds raised through Passports with Purpose, 25 families are in the process of moving into well-built brick homes that are expected to last far longer than their mud huts. LAFTI provided the land for these families, now landowners for the first time! An added bonus is that the homes are signed over to the woman of the house – an amazing feat given that India is a very patriarchal country.

The thing that blows me away about this little story is that families are changed. Improved. Provided a new life. And that this would NOT have been possible without hundreds of people donating in $10 increments.

That’s powerful.

The photo at left was taken this summer at one of the partially built homes.

Once homes are complete, they’ll look like this home built in a nearby village through LAFTI.

Passports with Purpose 2011 launches on November 30th. It’s not too late to participate as a blogger or to donate a prize. And we encourage all to donate between November 30 – December 16!

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